Hey! I was just thinking about one of my stories when I realized something... I have to create an entirely different culture for the dragons in my story! Does anyone have ideas to help me get along creating traditions and such for them? Here's some of what I have so far:
Dragons can live for an infinite amount of time, though this seems impossible because they either die from being killed or from gaining an illness with age because the amount of fire-based dragon magic in their blood that allows them to heal themselves has been depleted. They have a Head Dragon who upholds their laws and leads the Watch (not much detail about his/her responsibilities). Dragons are born without a gender. They go through a ceremony at the age of 500 in which they are enveloped in a strong pulse of dragon magic which gives them a gender in accordance with their actions over their lives to this point. Dragons mainly speak in two ways: telepathically and through verbal sounds and movements. However, dragons can also learn how to "tongue" human language as well. When dragons hatch, they are born without scales. They typically receive all of their scales by the age of five.
Any ideas?
Dragon Culture
4 posts in this topic.
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It depends on what kind of scale you need Dragon ideas. I could think of many faults that would allow for any enemies that want to kill them. Perhaps you could add this into their history.
Since they are born without scales, they are most likely easy to kill, harmless little infants until the age of 5. Giving any wrathful races a chance to get at them. Possibly this would lead to the Dragon's Head ensuring that there is a Guard, that will always Guard the dragonettes.
The fact that they have no scales when hatched would impact on their environment. If I were a dragon parent I would not want my infant freezing to death. So, therefore this would possibly change where they live, perhaps they are migrational creatures. Maybe it is their habit to nestle their eggs for years before they hatch so they can keep the warmth?
Old dragons are revered and respected, this is one of the most cultural things about dragons. The Head dragon should listen and contemplate what the Elders have to say.
Dragons who gain scales late are often thought of as abnormal or mutant like and frowned upon. Anything less than perfect is not something the dragons accomodate themselves with.
And . . . thats about all the idea about Dragons I have for you. I hope this is useful. -
You said that at the age of 5 they get their scales different types or color of scales mean a different type of dragon which means maybe a different clan which would in turn mean a different head dragon and that is my opinion after years of research concerning these creatures
happy to help
-dragons
P.S pm me whenever you need advice i have researched the creatures for 3 years of my life and i am still doing so so pm me or wall me whatever you want to do -
Differentiate biology from culture, if you can.
The dragons can have biological factors, like the age at which they get scales, and gender, and a culture could be formed in light of that. Under five year old's would be viewed very differently morally by the older dragons; depending on how high their reproductive rate is. If birthing is easy on dragons, then the weak protection of the younger babes will make them culturally worthless, and they'll be treated like that. If birthing is hard, the babe's will be treated like treasure, even more so because they are so frangile. killing a babe would be a heinous offence to Dragon culture indeed.
The gender at 500 think is a bit weird to me. On the one hand I get a strong "gender doesn't define the kind of person you are" theme coming through with it, which is fair enough, but on the other hand it raises a lot of questions about how dragons rear their young. Obviously they can't reproduce before the age of 500, which brings with it a whole host of questions including how many dragon there are and how old their culture is (even the oldest cultures on earth arent much more than 5000 years old, which is a paltry few generations for dragons). Would this make dragons culturally conservative; unable to deal with the rapidly shifting ways of the races around them and beneath their flight paths?
Perhaps dragons are innately peaceful, but because humans are so treacherous as to break their treaties many times every generation (a paltry 1000 years), dragons must war on them to protect their nesting grounds.
What does dragon knowledge look like? Do the have books, gems containing magical knowledge? Do they have gods, or science, or both? Do they have political factions, an economy? Do they have jobs? Are they smiths, and artisans? Do tehy hoard gold? Why?
In light of this, how do other species view them? Are they tragically misunderstood, or arrogant overlords?
Hope this gets you thinking, culture is fun.
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